The Taliban hunts Afghan prosecutors who uphold the law. Americans owe them protection | Opinion

This week marks the second anniversary of the evacuation of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. In less than 24 hours, U.S. citizens, contractors and military personnel left the country. They also left behind some 3,000 Afghan prosecutors who were trained by the United States and its allies. I am writing this to remind us of our moral duty. We must exhaust all efforts to save our former Afghan partners who attempted to adhere to the rule of law, as we taught them. These prosecutors, who were not directly employed by the U.S. government and therefore ineligible for Special Immigrant Visas, are now ruled by and at the mercy of the terrorists they had once imprisoned. Former Afghan justice sector employees, including 41 prosecutors, have been murdered or injured by the Taliban since the U.S. withdrawal. After terrorists were arrested, Afghan prosecutors charged and convicted them, leading to the legal imprisonment of almost 50,000 members of the Taliban, ISIS and other terror organizations. Now the prosecutors who imprisoned them live in hiding, facing starvation and death threats as their colleagues are murdered in retribution for upholding the rule of law.

One quiet and unassuming law professor and prosecutor was dragged from his home by 15 armed men, tortured and murdered for his role in holding members of the Taliban accountable for terrorism. Another prosecutor was forcefully taken from his car and shot dead by an armed road patrol group. Most recently, a former prosecutor and father of three children, who spent two years in Iran, was shot when he returned to Afghanistan in July. When the Taliban and other terrorists were arrested in armed conflicts or as a result of intelligence information, Afghan prosecutors pursued charges against them, leading to the legal imprisonment of almost 50,000 members of the Taliban, ISIS and other terror organizations. Nearly all of the current high-ranking Taliban officials served time in prison in those two decades. After the fall of Kabul two years ago, these men were released. U.S. prosecutors, under the leadership of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, recently came together to help their Afghan colleagues through Prosecutors for Prosecutors, a campaign to relocate Afghan prosecutors and their families to safe countries. This goal is expected to cost $15 million to accomplish.

Since the launch of the campaign, desperate pleas for help from former prosecutors in hiding, many with young children, have flooded in. Their stories are frightening. In the words of one: “All my family members are in danger of death like me. The Taliban want to arrest one of my family members to gain access to me. “After the fall of the Afghan government, a large number of criminals who were caught and imprisoned due to my presence were released from prisons and they are taking revenge on me and my colleagues.

“Doing my job according to the penal code, I have punished the criminals and put them in jail. While our government collapsed, the Taliban regime released all the prisoners and right now those criminals are seeking me so that my life and the life of my family is in danger.” Prosecutors are being targeted and killed for upholding the rule of law, and they need our help to get to safety. In Jackson County, my jurisdiction, we do the right thing even when it is difficult. Join me in supporting the rule of law. Visit the the U.S. Association of Prosecuting Attorneys’ website at apa-pfp.org to get involved. Call your federal representatives and ask them to expand Special Immigrant Visa eligibility to create a path to safety for our allies in peril. If you are able, please lend your support. More than 3,000 Afghan prosecutors are pleading for our help. We can’t forget them. Jean Peters Baker is the elected Jackson County Prosecutor. She also chairs the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, based in Washington D.C., which represents many elected and appointed prosecutor offices in the United States.